CECIMO CALL TO ACTION TO MANUFACTURING COMPANIES TO HELP HOSPITALS IN NEED

27.03.2020 - UCIMU-SISTEMI PER PRODURRE

In this moment of public health emergency caused by the outbreak of COVID-19, thehealthcare sector is facing unprecedented challenges.In particular, the virus outbreak is causing severe shortages of critical medical equipmentin hospitals or limited access to essential pieces, in particular valves or ventilators.CECIMO was requested by the European Commission to address its membership and query ifit would be able to aid in producing equipment (for instance, valves or ventilators) that hospitalsare lacking due to the COVID19 outbreak in Europe. Consequently, CECIMO has decided toexpand the call for action to all manufacturing companies, urging everybody who has thepossibility to do so, to assist the needs of hospitals all over Europe.The response from CECIMO Members has been so far very positive, with many companiesespecially from the 3Dprinting industry already volunteering to aid hospitals and health centersby proposing the use of their machines. CECIMO believes that indeed also the additivemanufacturing sector can be of great help to reach immediate solutions. A good example is thecase of the Italian start-up Isinnova, which offered their printer to a hospital in lack of valves fortheir medical devices.From a regulatory point of view, there are some legal constraints that can hamper the fullimplementation of such solutions. Member States should consider temporarily waiving some ofthe Medical Device Directive requirements for strategical goods during this period of crisis.In this regard, we welcome Commissioner Breton’s statement, claiming that the EC will facilitateall companies helping in this time, also protecting them from potential legal issues. TheCommissioner also highlighted that manufacturing technologies should be included in the scopeof a new fund aiming to sustain different sectors, such as healthcare, in this time of need.“I believe that the manufacturing sector can play an important role in sustaining the effort ofhospital workers in the middle of this emergency.” Says Filip Geerts, CECIMO DirectorGeneral, “However, it is in the best interest of all to clarify the regulatory issues in order to moveforward quickly and in a way that is not going to delay immediate actions".CECIMO – European Association of the Machine Tool Industriesand related Manufacturing TechnologiesAvenue Louise 66 - B - 1050 Brussels+32 (0) 2 502 70 [email protected] www.cecimo.euTo be part of this initiative, please fill the form on the CECIMO website.About CECIMOCECIMO is the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries and related ManufacturingTechnologies. We bring together 15 national associations of machine tool builders, whichrepresent approximately 1500 industrial enterprises in Europe (EU + EFTA + Turkey), over 80%of which are SMEs. CECIMO covers 98% of the total machine tool production in Europe andabout 35% worldwide. It accounts for more than 150,000 employees and a turnover of around27 billion euros in 2019. More than three quarters of CECIMO production is shipped abroad,whereas half of it is exported outside Europe.

 

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